Saturday, December 03, 2005

Books Bound in Human Skin

Spike magazine linked to a rather ghoulish article by Dan Alban from The Recorder, the Harvard Law School newspaper. Alban writes about books bound in human skin. There's even a name, apparently for such a practice - anthropodermic bibliopegy!

Alban notes that the College of Physicians of Philadelphia has four such books, including one with a visible tattoo; and a there's a copy of the Koran at the Cleveland Public Library bound with the skin of a particularly pious believer! The picture on the left (from the article) is Account of William Corder's Trial bound in his skin.

Might be quite a fun way to memorialise yourself!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonder what it feels like.. hey did you just use "Koran" ? :)

bibliobibuli said...

*shiver* don't even want to think about it ... puts a new spin on authors' ghosts, hey!

Cheeky Monkey said...

My mum showed me this wig once and I got the shivers just thinking that it came from a real person. To touch a book that was a skin belonging to someone....gosh, you think if I stroke it IT would get the shivers? ;D

Amir Hafizi said...

Oh yeahhh!

Where do I sign up?

There are lots of people I'd like to skin.

bibliobibuli said...

cheeky monkey - i certainly would!

amir - okay then ... which books would you cover with their skins?!

Anonymous said...

Just had an idea.. why not cover your own book with your own skin ? :)

bibliobibuli said...

anon - am thinking about it ... but which book??

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of authors I'd like to see used as a dustjacket for their own books,or better still someone else's. :)

lainieyeoh said...

Oh. Uhm. I'm still trying to figure out if this is so, so, sexy, or just about the grossest idea ever.